Project Time

We love to do projects at home, but have been so busy lately that I haven't made the time. That finally changed this week - we painted on Tuesday morning. The kids loved painting their canvases. I originally planned to have them do handprints in brown over their paint, but I love the texture they got with their brushes and the paint, so I think we will leave the canvases solid colors. After the canvases, we tried to do apple prints. G was more interested in painting the apples, and her hands. S was more interested in mixing colors and seeing how many pages he could paint.

I realized we've come a long way when I noticed that when we were done, S had no paint on his face, and only slight amounts on his hands and arms. G on the other hand, had paint everywhere - face, hands covered, clothes, table, chair, floor, etc. At least we had a good time. Funny moment from painting... every morning S asks whether he should wear a long sleeved or short sleeved shirt. His preference is short sleeves (and usually an old shirt with holes,) but he follows my suggestion. This morning I asked him to please pick a short sleeved shirt that already had stains or holes in it. He either didn't want to, or isn't aware of which of his clothes have permanent stains (uh, maybe the shirts he wears most often to pre-school?) and I have managed to throw away nearly all the hole-y shirts. So just before painting he had to change clothes. The one time I ask him to wear a stained shirt, and he doesn't want to!

We've also come a long way because we actually painted for 30+ minutes. Used to be 20 minutes to set up, 5 minutes to paint, 20 minutes to clean up. We are now closer to 15-30-20. I'm looking forward to the day when the project lasts longer than the combined set up and clean up.

Since several friends have mentioned that they don't let their kids paint at home, so here are my tips for painting at home with your children:

- Disposable - tape newspaper (multiple layers are good) to cover the table, use paper plates and bowls to hold the paint.

- Be prepared - Have sponges or wet paper towels to clean up paint spills right away; all the paper and paint you will use out and ready. (at least the paint bottles near the table)

- Limits - 1 or two paint bowls at a time. 1 paint brush. Small amounts of paint in the bowls. 1 paper at a time. You can parcel out more supplies as needed. Also, it is helpful to have little kids strapped into a highchair or booster seat - then they can't wander off with their little painty hands and repaint your house.

- Process not Outcome - let the kids enjoy the feeling of painting. Plan to do lots of pages (that you will throw away when they dry.) Let them choose their own colors and mix however they want. It's not about what pictures they paint, it is about the experience.

- Slow down - this is not the time to go off and start some chore or project. Watch them paint, even sit down and paint too. Makes clean up much easier if you stop the messes before they start.

- WASHABLE - The washable tempera paint is really (mostly) washable. Especially off old clothes :) Target has the Crayola brand, but Lakeshore learning has many more colors. And we like lots of colors at our house.

- Invite friends - We didn't do it this time, but next time we are doing a messy project, we'll definitely invite a friend or two. If I'm covering the table in newspaper anyway, we might as well use the other two seats. And then there would be two moms to do cleanup!